Sophie Alice Mitchell - Milk

Milk A catalyst for REACTIVATING MOSTAR’S ABANDONED CORE

SOPHIE ALICE MITCHELL DARWIN COLLEGE All images by author unless otherwise stated This dissertation is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration except where specifically indicated in the text.

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the MPhil Examination in Environmental Design in Architecture (Option B) 2013 15,353 Words

ABSTRACT This design research explores the potential for a series of subtle interventions to reactivate the contested ground of the former front line in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The thesis understands the role of architecture and its impact on daily life to be essential to an exploration of the paradox presented by the abandoned, and yet fiercely political city centre. The project describes a growing metabolism stemming from the introduction of a milk market to the centre of the city. This market acts as a catalyst for shared activity, and forms one end of a necklace of new structures that create a lateral link across the derelict territory of the ‘Neutral Zone,’ imposed by the international community following the Dayton Peace Agreement. The project hinges on the development of a simple timber prop, introduced to shore up and secure existing structures. This prop is designed to be assembled in a variety of ways to support an increasingly independent set of structures, allowing the project to span the spectrum of re-use and new-build form. Each new structure becomes incrementally more building-like, at each stage, lending a growing significance to the site. Each phase of the project evolves in complexity, interiority, and formality, while producing an increasingly complex set of exterior public spaces. These interventions aim to strengthen connections between East and West Mostar by activating the stigmatised space at the centre of the city to create a shared centre for trade that supports daily routines, that in turn may encourage dialogue between Mostar’s divided communities.

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LIST OF ACRONYMS BiH

Bosnia and Herzegovina

BD

BrÄ?ko District

CBO

Community Based Organisation

DPA

Dayton Peace Agreement

EU

European Union

FBH

Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

HLP

Housing Land and Property

IC

International Community

IDP

Internally Displaced Persons

NGO

Non-governmental Organisation

OHR

Office of the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina

RS

Republika Srpska

UN

United Nations

UNDP

United Nations Development Programme

UNHCR

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract 6 List of Acronyms 9 Table of Contents 10 Acknowledgments 12

Introduction 15 Setting the Context 15 Aims and Objectives 16 Methodology 16 Layers of Division 21 Urbicide and the Erosion of Heterogeneity 22 Contested Edges and Memory 28 Mostar’s ‘Neutral Zone’ and Planning as a Tool for Territorialism 32 Recognising the Value of Everyday-Life 39 Stage 01 / Catalyst 49 Milk: Identifying Informal Trade and Barter as a Catalyst for Dialogue 50 Housing, Land and Property Rights to Abandoned Buildings 58 A Milk Market 63 Impact of the Catalyst 75 Stage 02 / Re-use 81 Locating the Next Anchor Point 82 Structural Timber Props 90 Levels of Enclosure 94 Impact of Re-using 102 Stage 03 / Occupy 105 Understanding Pride Through Design 106 Engaging Local Skills 111 Materiality 119 The Role of the Market Place and Economic Incentive in Contested Space 123 Impact of the Shared Occupation 124 Stage 04 / Formalise 129 Growth and Gradual Permanency of the Market Place 133 Purchase of Abandoned Land and Property 134 Impact of the Formalisation 134 Stage 05 / Utilise 139 An Independent Shared Structure 140 Significance and Impact of An Independent Structure 153 Conclusions 159

Bibliography 163 List of Interviews 165 List of Figures 165

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Informal Trade Between Two Women, Lukomir, Rural BiH 2012

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to Ingrid Schröder for her invaluable guidance, commitment and enthusiasm for this project. In addition, I would like to thank Joris Fach, Peter Clegg and Maximilian Sternberg for their advice and support.

Special thanks are due to Adisa Dzino whose insight, recollections and hospitality made this thesis possible. Thanks also go to Lefkos Kyriacou, Giullia Carabelli, Mela Žuljevic, Safet Begovic, Maurice Mitchell, Britt Baillie, Vernes Causevic, Senada Demirovic, Felipe Hernandez, John Yarwood, Robin Spence, and Emma Mitchell.

Thanks also go to Daniel Ladyman, Sahiba Chadha, Ed Barsley, Thomas Powell and Sarah Cook, for their original advice and for making this project enjoyable.

I would also like to thank my family and friends for their support and patience. In particular, I would like to thank my dad, Bob Mitchell, for his company and assistance during my first trip to Mostar in December 2011.

Critics: Peter Beard Max Beckenbauer Joseph Bedford Peter Carl Claude MH Demers Arie Graafland Spencer de Grey Edmund Fowles Alfred Jacoby Jon Lopez John O’Mara Nick Ray Narinder Sagoo Makoto Saito Simon Smith Alex Warnock-Smith Mary Ann Steane Koen Steemers Paul La Tourelle

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Fig.1 Spanish Square, The Glass Bank and the Destroyed Hit Supermarket 1995

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INTRODUCTION SETTING THE CONTEXT

Established along the river Neretva, Mostar grew from a simple crossing point into a major trading hub of the Ottoman Empire (Coward, 2009). Mostar acted, as the border between East and West, connecting the Ottoman Empire with the Adriatic, and for centuries it was an excellent example of ethno-national coexistence (Haider, 2012, p. 4). In 1992 Bosnian and Herzegovina (BiH) declared its independence from Yugoslavia. From May 1993 non-Croats (Bosniaks and the few remaining Bosnian-Serbs) were forcibly evicted from the western part of Mostar in order for an ethnically cleansed, homogeneous capital of ‘Herceg-Bosna’ to be created, with the intention for it to be joined to the newly independent Croatia. This resulted in nearly all Bosniaks fleeing West Mostar into the old Ottoman centre in the East of the city, thus creating an ethnically homogeneous ghetto (Coward, 2009). This ghetto was then subjected to the most intensively violent siege of the Bosnian War until the Dayton Peace Agreement (DPA) was signed in 1995. The agreement ended the violence, legitimised BiH as a state, and institutionalised two constituent entities - the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBH) and Republika Srpska (RS). The city of Mostar is located in the FBH in southeast Herzegovina, south of the capital Sarajevo and just forty kilometres from the border with Croatia.

The city centre of Mostar became a front line in the war, dividing the city along ethno-national lines. Despite almost two decades elapsing since the signing of the DPA, Mostar remains segregated socially, politically and economically.

The underlying social tensions are exacerbated by BiH’s weak economy, which is recovering from conflict whilst also transitioning from a communist to a market economy (Haider, 2012, p. 11). This design research investigates the role of the urban environment in relation to Mostar’s continued segregation and economic fragility. Structural necessity and daily routines are combined to devise a strategy for the reactivation of Mostar’s abandoned core that develops in an incremental manner, each stage learning from, and building on the newly revealed urban condition. The intervention is minimal but offers a means of incremental development appropriate to the condition. Rather than being suggested as a panacea, the design is a means for exploring a range of strategies from the simple reactivation of found space to the design of a more authoritative structure with a more expressive form. These strategies respond to distinct bodies of literature on the development of contested space and ethnographic research – the project behaving as a speculative test bed. Their impact is projected within these terms but is in no way absolute or exclusively correct. Most importantly, it makes some headway in the field by grounding action, by way of buildings, in the larger debate surrounding the reconstruction of a heterogeneous core in Mostar.

Throughout this thesis, I will refer to homogenous and heterogeneous space. By homogenous I mean a space that is not shared between Bosniaks and Croats, I take the position that this is a negative aspect of the space/area/territory. The use of the word ‘heterogeneous’ refers to a shared spatial condition; this is not necessarily defined by mixed ethnic residences or clearly marked spaces of coexistence, but is characterised by evident, everyday moments in which the life of the two communities intertwine and establish a healthy dialogue. Heterogeneous space is where difference can foster stimulating spatial conditions and social dynamics.

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AIMS AND OBJECTIVES My research will addresses the following questions: 1. How can the urban environment act as a catalyst for the reactivation of Mostar’s abandoned core in order to facilitate inter-ethnic dialogue and stimulate economic growth?

An underlying trajectory will ask: 2. How can a construction technique be rationalised in order to produce a variety of scales of space and facilitate different user needs?

METHODOLOGY This design research adopts a combined methodology, involving architectural based urban design, academic research, and ethnographic study. Design is used as a tool to explore ethnographic observations (including conversations and formal interviews) and subsequently analysed and structured through the use of academic literature, and primary resources such as planning policy, United Nations (UN) reports and guidelines offered by organisations such as The World Bank and the Office of the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina (OHR).

In December 2011, I visited Mostar for seven days and conducted interviews and surveys with local residents, planners and activists. During this field study I carried out environmental and structural analysis of the ruins that have been selected for study within this thesis, revealing opportunities for intervention and clearly demonstrating where the built fabric is too delicate to support reuse. This period of study was followed by a series of design propositions that focused on shoring up the existing fabric to support reuse of these buildings.

Following this iteration of design proposals I spent nine months in 2012 conducting field research in three distinct fields; May – July in the NGO Shelter Centre in Geneva, Switzerland; July - September working amongst the informal traders in Mostar; September – December in the NGO Cultural Heritage without Borders in Sarajevo. Consequently this design research is grounded in primary site observations taken between December 2011 and December 2012, and an understanding of top-down policy decision implemented by NGOs and UN bodies. The observations gathered in this time focused on smallscale events and daily routines that are often overlooked in planning policy and political debates, but play a critical role in the socio-political dynamics of the city. The research examines the fractures and exchanges of everyday life that affect the way that the city is experienced, through extensive use of site observations, photography, mapping and drawing.

Unlike studies taken in the fields of sociology, political science or planning this thesis takes a design approach that is embedded in ethnographic research.

Rather than focusing primarily on statics or mass interviews and gathering information at a large and representative scale, this research is based on ‘ordinary’ people living in Mostar and the specificity of the way in which the city affects their daily lives. As such, this thesis explores Mostar’s potential futures with a context-sensitive approach.

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Half Occupied Ruin Santica Street

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Most importantly this thesis is a piece of propositional design research, which enables new situations and questions to be revealed through the speculation of the effects of built intervention. Throughout the design process each move is analysed and questioned and linked back to the academic arena supporting this research. A series of phased propositions have been constructed that form the framework for a layered approach whereby the process of identifying and responding to very particular local needs is fundamental. Each phase introduces a new scale and type of intervention (changes to policy/temporary occupations/built form), providing the basis for the next. The impact of each stage is assessed in relation to examples of similar situations in other cities and my own observations of the city and people who live there. The proposal aims to provide a socially sustainable approach that responds to urban policy, economic growth, and environmental sensitivity. Each stage is intended to bring more people to central Mostar, contributing to the activation of this area and an increase in dialogue between East and West. In turn, the project aims to boost the economy of the area, increase land value, and improve employment opportunities.

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Informal Exchange; Stari Grad (East Mostar) 2011

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layers of division

URBICIDE AND THE EROSION OF HETEROGENEITY The war in Mostar between 1992-1995, not only killed thousands and destroyed hundreds of buildings, it created an ethnically homogenous ghetto on either side of the front line. Martin Coward argues, in his theory of Urbicide, that the destruction of cultural heritage was critical to the campaign for ethnic cleansing which drove the violence in Mostar.1 ‘The seemingly savage and wanton destruction of symbolic buildings went hand in hand with massacres and displacement. This led to the destruction of buildings on a massive scale in Bosnia, well beyond what might be expected as collateral damage from a campaign to ‘cleanse’ a territory, or as acceptable damage from the targeting of strategically important structures’ (Coward, 2009, p. 6).

According to Coward, the violent destruction of the city fabric was seen as the destruction of identity, people and buildings being intrinsically bound to one another. Coward’s argument emphasises the role violence had in not only eradicating the cultural history of the Bosniak people, in destroying evidence of centuries of coexistence between the Bosniak and Croat communities.2 Therefore, not only were buildings of cultural and political significance targeted but also places of everyday coexistence, consequently facilitating ethnic cleansing; ‘Markets, museums, libraries, cafes, in short, the places where people gather to live out their collective life, have been the focus of attacks’ (Adams, 1993 cited by Coward, 2009, p. 8). The urban environment of Mostar was destroyed in order to segregate East and West because of its role as a place of heterogeneous identities and practices. Coward argues that buildings provide the essential conditions needed for shared places of encounter, the destruction of the built environment therefore destroying the spatial experience that they enclose, frame and project. Thus it is not only the building that is lost, but also the ‘network of relations constituted through a worldly engagement with (built) things’ (Coward, 2009, pp. 70 - 72).

The destruction of the urban environment, therefore, is far greater than the sum of the individual lost buildings. The loss also accounts for the prolonged segregation between East and West Mostar that is still present today, and for the severe difficulty that has been experienced by the international community (IC), and the people of Mostar, in rebuilding an integrated society. The destruction of the buildings also destroyed the arena in which coexistence can occur. Hence, the reconstruction of Mostar cannot be achieved by rebuilding the lost buildings; it requires a much deeper analysis of ‘what it is to live in such a world, and in what way building contributes to the experience of living in that world’ (Coward, 2009, p. 63)? One aim of this thesis is to understand how the built environment is constitutive of shared space and to what extent the reconstruction process can address the loss of social heterogeneity. ‘A Bosnian human rights advocate insisted, ‘It’s not that you just build houses and people will automatically reconcile; but it is that they cannot reconcile if they are hungry’(Haider, 2012, p. 12). Thus it follows that it takes the reconstruction, or provision, of places in which the daily lives of East and West Mostarians overlap in order for inter-ethnic dialogue to begin, because without this physical space of coexistence the shared psychological condition cannot emerge. At present, Mostar’s urban fabric fails to do this, with the exception of a limited node used for informal trading and youth culture. These themes will be expanded on throughout this thesis.

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1. First coined in 1963 by author Michael Moorcock, ‘Urbicide’ became well known during the Bosnian War. The term refers to an act of violence that is specifically aimed at the built fabric of a city in order to destruct the foundations, history, and identity of particular group of people.

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Fig 2. Cigarette Packet, health warning written in Croatian, Bosnian and Serbian

2. The terms ‘Bosniak’ and ‘Croat’ are used in this thesis to describe Mostar’s primary ethnic groups. These terms are contentious and the categorisation is often rejected in BiH. However, following Martin Coward’s lead, for the purposes of clarity, ‘Bosniak’ and ‘Croat’ are the most accurate descriptions available. ‘Bosniak’ refers to the population in BiH who to not identify themselves as Croatian or Serbian. The term ‘Bosnian’ is not suitable here as it refers to ‘Bosniaks’, ‘Bosnian-Croats’ and ‘Bosnian-Serbs’, i.e all BiH’s indigenous ethnic groups. The term ‘BosnianMuslim’ is misleading, as, despite the ‘Bosniak’ traditional adherence to Islam, the ‘Bosniak’ identity does not necessarily constitute a Muslim identity. ‘Croat’, refers to ‘Bosnian-Croats’ – the population who identify their ethnic background as Croatian but who reside in BiH. A large proportion of Bosnian-Croats hold Croatian passports (according to Efendic, just under half a million people of BiH’s estimated 3,879,296 population hold a Croatian passport (Efendic, 2013)).

Bosnian-Croats are also referred to as Catholics due to their traditional religious beliefs, however, like ‘Bosnian-Muslim’ the term ‘Catholic’ is a generalisation. The complexity of the terms ‘Bosniak’, ‘Bosnian-Croat’, and ‘Bosnian-Serb’ is reflected in the post-war rejection of the ‘Serbo-Croat’ language. It is now necessary in BiH to differentiate between the Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian languages despite being the same language until the break up of Yugoslavia and only varying in regional differences as most languages do. Consequently, the labels and signage of everyday life iterate the same phrase three times, twice in Latin script (Bosnian and Croatian) and once in Cyrillic (Serbian). See fig. See fig. 2

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CONTESTED EDGES AND MEMORY ‘When such structures are no longer used for open warfare, they may be occupied by vigilant and suspicious victors and once abandoned are constant reminders of physical and political violence. But to say that the scenes of war are reminders, which of course they are, is to underestimate the way in which they continually assert the past upon the present. Sites of conflict become potent representations because of their materiality and archeology.

They contain traces of the dead and indicate the patterns of violence. They are contaminated in the anthropological sense of the word’ (Purbrick, Aulich, & Dawson, 2007).

Purbrick et al’s dissection of the places left over from violent conflict resonates with the way in which the city centre of Mostar continues to impose a sense of continued division, tension and brutality on everyday life. The ruins have long become ingrained into the character of the city and their presence exacerbates the social and economic polarisation. The poverty, and sense of decay, that they encapsulate are emblematic of the social conditions, which they frame.

The memories of political violence that these ruins project, intensify the nationalistic politics of the city. The physical contamination of the ruins reveals itself to the street in the odours and debris that distinguish the places where ruins meets pavement.

Coward’s examination of the intent of Urbicide explains how the front line that emerged through the centre of the city could enable the resultant sociopolitical situation to evolve into the present day ethno-national segregation.

The edge condition between East and West, has, since the signing of the DPA, disintegrated into a scarcely occupied frontier. The Španjolski Trg (Spanish Square), once the node of connections across the city and a flourishing centre, is the hinge point for memories both of both segregation and connection.

Before the war this was the place where people would meet, shop, and drink coffee together, it was centred on interaction and conversation. The ‘Hit Supermarket’ that stood here provided a social hub that spilled out onto a public garden; the loss of such a place contributes to the sense of absence that is abundant in the city centre (Interviews by the author, 2011-2012).3 The city is thus polarised without hard boundaries such as walls or checkpoints.

It is the reciprocal relationship between how Mostarians use the city, and the urban environment, that creates the current division. The crux of the segregation resides in the city centre, the edge of which is composed of the burnt out skeletons of buildings, wounded facades, forgotten scraps of land, fences, sandbags and heaps of rubble. The spaces left behind are treated as if they were the periphery of the city, not its centre - ‘the physical traces of a multi-ethnic history were removed, creating green fields, or car parks, in their wake’ (Riedlmayer, 2002 cited by Coward, 2009, p. 8).4 However, despite the clear physical division between the Croat and Bosniak territories marked out by the shells of buildings and excess of abandoned ground, the division is not absolute. Movement between East and West Mostar is not formally restricted and the buffer zone merely fails to encourage a dialogue. The way the division affects each resident is highly subjective and negotiable, thus the possibility to negotiate the reactivation of this territory is plausible. Wendy Pullan argues that this permeability is crucial in harbouring a socially rich centre that can still be a buffer, providing ‘both intimacy and distance, malleability rather

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3. The memories of the ‘Hit Square’ hinted at in this thesis have been interpreted from conversations and interviews that took place in December 2011 and between July and December 2012 with residents in Mostar of ages ranging from 25 - 72.

4. Anita Bakshi describes the old city of Nicosia as ‘relegated to the edges of contemporary urban life.’ (Bakshi, 2012, pp. 5-6) Parallels can be drawn between Nicosia and Mostar whose largely independent East and West function as disconnected settlements with distinct city centres. Like Nicosia, Mostar’s division is marked by absence. The city centre is, despite of, and because of this absence, inherently contested since it is the place where the two homogenous centres collide; a territory for two dreams. (Pullan, 2011, p. 15)

Abandoned Foyer of the Glass Bank 29

Privredna Bank viewed from the Glass Bank

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than confinement and exclusion,’ in a more socially sustainable manner where porosity is essential and ‘boundaries exist in reciprocity’(Pullan, A one-sided wall, 2004). Mostar’s division is a ‘thick’ boundary, adaptable and inhabited, it becomes a place where new connections can change, and shared activity, based on convenience and economic benefit, can be fostered.

A ring of dereliction, marked by two abandoned bank buildings, one on each edge; the ‘Glass Bank’ and the ‘Old Privredna Bank’, frames the Spanish Square.

The skeletons of these buildings, dappled with bullet holes, are emblematic of the way in which this place, once the heart of the city, is now neglected. Seen from above, the ‘Neutral Zone’ between east and west runs through the stretch of land framed by the two former bank buildings. The significance of the buffer zone in this location is paramount as this was the core of the city before the war. Previously known as ‘Hit Square’ because of the large ‘Hit’ shopping centre that stood at its centre, an unfinished theatre now occupies the land.

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MOSTAR’S NEUTRAL ZONE AND PLANNING AS A MEANS OF TERRITORIALISM The complexity of building in Mostar’s city centre is heightened due to its contradictory role as an edge; Pullan observes that ‘nationalist states tend to be most radical at their margins, not their core’(Pullan, Frontier urbanism: the periphery at the centre of contested cities, 2011, p. 15). This provocative edge condition is particularly confrontational in Mostar as its ethno-national margins are in located in the city centre, thus creating a thread of nationalistic tension through the core of the city. This tension is manifested in the built fabric of the centre, where reconstruction efforts have been largely stunted.

In Mostar’s post-war reconstruction, the most contentious projects have been implemented along this edge.

The city centre of Mostar was prescribed as a ‘Neutral Zone’ in talks following the signing of the DPA that ended the violent conflict of the war. The lapse in time between the signing of the DPA and the classification of this territory as ‘Neutral’ meant that it was, in the socially and politically fragile environment that followed the cease-fire, intensely cultivated for nationalistic gains, using planning to achieve territorial monopoly (Interviews by author 2011-2012).

The political divisions of the city’s government resulted in fragmented reconstruction plans that led to the ‘Neutral Zone’ becoming ‘a permanent polygon for semi-legal urbanism, and “monumental” constructions’ (Pasic, 2005, p. 122). Scott Bollens argues that planning is often used to divide up territory in pursuit of ethno-national gain and that ‘ethnic criteria overshadow functional factors in the distribution of urban benefits’ (Bollens, 2002, p. 36).5 In Mostar, this approach has been played out in its reconstruction whereby the city has been subjected to multiple attempts to monopolise its previously shared spaces. These projects, have worked in a similar way to urbicide; rather than pursuing the destruction of buildings associated with a cultural heritage of a specific ethno-national group, the planning regimes have focused on the construction of buildings intentionally destructive to the heterogeneous identity of the city and constitutive of homogenising ethnic-clusters either side of the front line.

Furthermore, planning is used as a means of distancing communities from the realities of an ethnically fractured community by imposing false or unachievable ‘neutrality’ on a contested area (Bollens, 2002, p. 24). ‘In this strategy, planning acts as an ethnically neutral or “colour-blind” mode of state intervention responsive to individual-level needs and differences’(Bollens, 2002, p. 25). The decision to plan the city centre of Mostar as a shared space has resulted in a joint Croat-Bosniak administrative centre; key civic buildings such as the police headquarters, NGOs, embassies and the Mayors office being located here. This planning technique aimed to balance the ethno-national divide by ensuring both East and West Mostar require this area, thus subtly enforcing a environment where Bosniak and Croat lives overlap. However, this has led to a neglected centre because such facilities do not actively encourage coexistence, only providing a space for overlaps to happen during formal and one-off occasions rather than on a daily and informal basis.

5. See also Weizman, E. (2007). Hollow Land Israel’s Architecture of Occupation. London, UK: Verso.

The density of abandoned plots and ruined buildings within the city is particularly intense along the former front line thus magnifying the polarising

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View of the Spanish Square and the Abandoned Construction of the Croatian National Theatre taken from the Glass Bank. 2011

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View from Maršala Tita (East Mostar) facing West and the St.Peter and Paul Francisian Church

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nature of this territory, and its role as a buffer zone. The Bulevar Narodne Revolucije (Boulevard of People’s Revolution or ‘Boulevard’) marks a clear rift through the city centre, adding to the role of the ruined edges. It is the main transit artery through Mostar and cuts the city in two from north to south.

It formed a major section of the front line during the war and now serves as the line of division between the Croat and Bosniak communities. Contested, nationalistic buildings exist either side of this dividing line. Mostar’s pre-war city centre, of which the Spanish Square is the core, has not been ignored in Mostar’s reconstruction efforts despite its appearance giving an impression of abandonment. Its desolation is illustrative of failed attempts to build in this highly contested territory. Rather than being cultivated as the shared space it was before the war, the Spanish Square has become the mark of division. ‘After the war… the square remained a non-place, and clearly stood as a limit for the locals, who did not cross it’(Makas, 2007).

Since the rehabilitation of the city began in the years following the cease-fire, there have been a number of projects proposed for the ‘Neutral Zone’. The ‘fear of “the other”’ has become ‘intertwined in urban planning decisions’ that have shaped the derelict landscape of the city centre (Bollens, 2002, p. 23). Many of these have aggravated the fundamental antagonisms that resulted in the 19921995 conflict, and have therefore been abandoned. These projects ‘revealed the deeply political nature of planning and urban design, disciplines which continue to be falsely presented as technical or aesthetic in nature’ (Gwiazda & Pullan, 2011). This, in turn, has contributed to the desolation of the former city centre. For example, the Croatian National Theatre project, positioned on the site of a former socially heterogeneous node, the Hit Shopping Centre, began when the central area of the city was still defined as Croat territory and was subsequently cut short when the area became defined as ‘neutral’. This has left an essential link between the Bosniak and Croat communities absent as the basement construction and beginning of theatrically large steps up to a nonexistent grand entrance give the appearance of abandonment (despite active use of the theatre). The theatre construction was faulted under the change of territory from Croat to ‘Neutral’ because it ‘revealed the tensions between what some see as the public display of minority identity and others see as secessionist sentiments,’ thus enraging controversy within the Bosniak community (Makas, 2007). The building itself was the manifestation of a contested nationalist identity and because the Bosnian War was so intricately involved with questions of nationalism, religion and territory, all of these issues were deemed extremist and were consequently considered inappropriate to the successful regeneration of a shared space. Furthermore issues concerning ownership of the land for the Croatian National Theatre, which was part of an allegedly, illegal deal completed during the war, have played a role in the stagnation of this project (Makas, 2007). This is a common problem with building in this zone of the city, issues of unresolved housing, land, and property ownership will be expanded on in the following chapter.

Reconstruction of religious buildings along Mostar’s contested edge has been used as a strategic means of defining space as either belonging to the Croat or Bosniak communities. Religious associations have not been welcomed in the central area as the two communities can, as a generalisation, be defined by their religious views and hence they magnify the divide.6 The most explicatory example of the use of religious identity to claim ethno-national territory is undoubtedly the St.Peter and Paul Francisian Church. Plans to build a new cathedral in the city centre were overturned with the declaration of this

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6. See footnote no. 2

territory as neutral, leading to another abandoned structure in the buffer zone further emphasising the dereliction of the area. In response to the loss of this project, a 107.213-meter cast concrete bell tower was constructed as part of the ‘reconstruction’ of the St.Peter and Paul Francisian Church. This potent manifestation of the Croat desire to mark the space as Catholic highlights the role of nationalism in the planning of Mostar’s reconstruction.

Against a backdrop of urban decay and fractured social relations, ‘minimal but persistent events continue to define parts of the topography and take on more significance than would normally be assigned to simple activities’ (Pullan, 2006, p. 120). For example, the Liska Street Cemetery, close to the Boulevard, was once full of both Catholic and Muslim graves and after the war it was one of the only remaining shared spaces. However, instead of becoming a node for mutual understanding and acceptance this space became a channel for the unresolved tensions between the two communities leading to ‘one of the most violent incidents in post-Dayton Bosnia-Herzegovina’ (Makas, 2007). An unprovoked attack on Muslim visitors to the site by Croat police instigated a series of violent conflicts in which one man died, several people were injured and all of the remaining Muslim residents in the West were forcibly removed from their homes. In the years following this incident, the Catholic graves have been gradually removed and reburied in Catholic cemeteries leaving this pocket of Muslim territory embedded in the Croat zone of the city (Wasserman, 1997).

The evolution of shared space has been prevented in Mostar, producing a fragmented city with a breadth of overlaps and divisions that are manipulated through urban planning. Weizman argues that bureaucratic mechanisms of planning are a key element in continued territorial conflicts in Jerusalem because they allow for ethnic segregation to be imposed behind the disguise of bureaucracy (Weizman, 2007). In BiH a repercussion of the socio-political tension within governmental structures has meant that only a fraction of donations made by the European Union (EU) and other organisations for reconstruction and reconciliation projects is spent. The politicians, who use existing nationalist tensions to their favour, exacerbate the lack of infrastructure for reconciliation throughout BiH (Oslobodjenje, 2011; Hopkins, 2011; Interviews by author 2012). Consequently, this design research aims to engage with Mostar from within the communities, observing and building on the patterns that define everyday life rather than implementing a top-down policy based strategy.

Although planning and regeneration in Mostar have been used as a tool for nationalistic territorialism, there have also been cases where reconstruction efforts have been based on real needs and pragmatic decisions such as housing provision and the reconstruction of a shared high school. However, regeneration projects often expose and reproduce the hostilities that occur when urban territories and communities are deeply contested.’ (O’Dowd & Komarova, 2010). O’Dowd and Komarova illustrate how the introduction of leisure and commerce to the area, although perceived at planning level as an ideal opportunity for shared space, does not deal with the root of the problem and will consequently become the territory of one group or the other. There is a rigid link between community and place, and thus community can only exist within certain boundaries. This resonates in Mostar’s regeneration where newly constructed apartment blocks within the ‘Neutral Zone’ lay unoccupied and abandoned despite high levels of refugees waiting to return (UNHCR, 2013).

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Significantly Contested Construction and Ground

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Key Administrative Buildings and Planned ‘Shared Space’

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RECOGNISING THE VALUE OF EVERYDAY LIFE The close observation of how the urban environment shapes the rituals, daily routines, and habits of ordinary life in Mostar is used as the primary vehicle for understanding division in the city. This understanding of daily life is then used as a basis for design. Huma Haider discusses the importance of everyday customs, such as taking coffee, in composing an integrated public realm and explores such activities as a means to interpret social relations. Dinka Corkalo et al’s interview with a Bosniak who fled Mostar during the war reveals that it is often the routine aspects of daily life that are the strongest indicators of the underlying relationships between divided societies; ‘It isn’t like it used to be before the war. There is no “Come on, let’s have a coffee.” There is nothing like that anymore. And when there is nothing like that, I do not feel like going there’ (Corkalo, Ajdukovic, Weinstein, Stover, Djipa, & Biro, 2004, p. 155).

In BiH the ritual of taking coffee is vital to everyday life and constitutes an invitation for conversation, it is a custom so ingrained into Bosnian culture, that where it is absent, the social heterogeneity of urban life is compromised.

Corkalo et al’s observations hint both at the complexity of Mostar’s layers of division, and emphasises everyday life as a crucial factor in understanding and designing in contested space. Such insights present an opportunity to challenge and contribute to the way in which reconciliation is approached.

Whilst research projects concerned with divided and contested cities recognise the importance of understanding the intricacies of everyday life, there has been little interpretation of this research into urban planning or reconstruction programs.7 This research is a first step towards a more sensitive design approach to reconstruction after conflict that draws on the potential of daily activities and customs.

The pressures of everyday life on the division, extends to the differences in the quality of life either side of the city. As Jörg Dürrschmidt discusses in relation to the German/Polish border town of Guben/Gubin; ‘considerable differences in cost of living and income in favour of the German side do not made for a level playing field in terms of enjoying everyday culture’(Dürrschmidt, 2008, p. 64). Acute difference in quality of life between Mostar’s east and west are a result of the uneven war and its damage that devastated the east to a greater extent (Pasic, 2005). However, this problem is intensified by the limited dialogue between the two communities as each assumes the other has more economic opportunities (Corkalo, Ajdukovic, Weinstein, Stover, Djipa, & Biro, 2004). This is typical of divided cities as Pullan describes; divisions ‘foster a curious disengagement with reality, […] where they “allow people to see what they want to see on the other side, the image of their enemy.” In effect, the conflict becomes a representation of itself, spiralling into unrecognisable and uncontrollable permutations from its one and only side’(Pullan, A onesided wall, 2004). Furthermore the problem of unbalanced conditions and opportunities has been the at the centre of recent tension in the city because of disparate proportional voting in the elections that led to Mostar not voting with the rest of BiH in the October 2012 elections. The City Council election was found to be unlawful because the amount of deputies from six city districts was not proportionate to the amount of voters in those districts. Bosniak officials caused huge obstructions to the court’s decision because the Bosniak population is vastly out numbered by the Croat population and therefore feared being undermined (Alic, A. 2012). Moreover, Croatia’s admission to the European Union (EU) on the 1st July 2013 has intensified the feelings of imbalance throughout the city as many Bosnian-Croats hold Croatian passports and consequently have advantageous opportunities in terms of travel and work (Interviews by author, pre-Croatian EU accession 2012).8

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7. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) project ‘Imagine Coexistence’ began to build on basic needs stemming from everyday life however, the project only lasted eighteen months (including planning) and it consequently left many communities feeling abandoned. (Haider, 2012, p. 25) 8. Just under half a million Bosnian citizens have Croatian passports with all the rights of Croatian citizens. (Efendic, 2013)

Areas of Informal Trade and Activity

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Fig.3 ‘Street Arts Festival Mostar’ Painting the Glass Bank

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Above: Glass Bank December 2011, Below: Glass Bank 2012

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Destruction in 1995

Destruction in 2013

Abandoned Ground

Contested Ground

Shared Space

Informal Trade

Neutral Zone

Front Line

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Fig.4 Glass Bank 2008

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Glass Bank 2012

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catalyst

MILK: IDENTIFYING INFORMAL TRADE AND BARTER AS A CATALYST FOR DIALOGUE Due to the socio-political tensions concentrated in the ‘Neutral Zone’ of Mostar, post war reconstruction and development has been a stunted and slow process. Attempts to mark the area as either Croat or Bosniak have proved a major obstacle in reconstruction efforts, resulting in numerous abandoned construction sites, where projects have been suspended due to their over arching nationalistic ambitions. Therefore, it is essential that an appropriate catalyst for activity and interaction is identified for the mutual and successful redevelopment of Mostar’s city centre. Current academic discourse regarding contested urban frontiers is driven by an understanding of the importance of everyday life and the urban environment as a stage for such activities (Gwiazda and Pullan 2011). This design research, identifies a suitable catalyst for urban activation based on ethnographic observations, of the routines and habits that define daily life in Mostar. As advocated by Haider, coffee plays an irreplaceably important role in social interaction across all ethnic groups in Mostar, in addition to coffee, the market place, and a network of informal economies support further social dialogue.

The principle of the catalyst is driven by an understanding of the importance of reinforcing informal social and economic structures within contemporary cities. Rahul Mehrotra among others argues that the very character of a city is defined by its informal activities and occupations (Mehrotra 2012, xi). ‘It is a temporal articulation and occupation of space which not only creates a richer sensibility of spatial occupation, but also suggests how spatial limits are expanded to include formally unimagined use’ (Mehrotra 2012, xii).

Informal activity of this sort can be observed within the ruin of the Glass Bank on the Spanish Square in Mostar. Over the last five years the metal frames of smashed fenestration has been incrementally removed by locals who, in a climate of vast unemployment, have resorted to scavenging all valuable materials from the ruins. Hence, the informal trade of scrap metal has revealed economic potential in the ruins, demonstrating that ‘informal urbanism… is about invention within strong constraints with indigenous resources with the purpose of turning odds into a survival strategy’ (Mehrotra 2012, xiii). In addition to providing a vital income to some of Mostar’s poorest residents, the Glass Bank has also been used as a space of recreation in recent years. Redbull hosted a street-dance event in the large almost-public foyer, in 2010, and the ever-changing graffiti that covers the walls of the ground floor indicate its growing role in public life. The Glass Bank is representative of the capacity of the urban fabric to nurture an array of informal practices that contribute to rich publicly shared space.

Haider identifies the market place, and the informal trade it supports, as a place where ethno-national tensions can begin to be absorbed and dispersed.

This can be seen in the black market ‘Arizona’ that formed in the immediate aftermath of the war in BiH on the border between Doboj and Tuzla. The market place ‘attracted traders and shoppers of all ethnic groups, in need of income and goods to improve their families’ lives. General Charles Boyd emphasised that this market offered a clue to rebuilding a multiethnic society in BiH. ‘Economic opportunity can force re-exposure to and interaction with the ‘other’ and rebuild confidence among different groups in living together’

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Peddlers Selling Seeds, West Mostar Market, December 2012 51

Fresh Milk for Sale on the Streets of Sarajevo December 2012

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(Haider 2012, 16). Bakshi supports this argument in her analysis of Nicosia’s old market places; ‘the hans worked not because they were idyllic settings of unity and brotherhood, but rather they allowed for the complex social negotiation of difference. And, in fact, that is what made the shared streets of the Ermou marketplace so important to the functioning of the mixed city’ (Bakshi 2012, 120). Furthermore, Dominic Busch draws attention to the dialogue a market place can stimulate within the sensitive context of divided Guben/Gubin by analysing a conversation between a Polish vendor and German customers noting that ‘in this situation, interactants have to negotiate and construct framings of hospitality abroad, customer-vendor relations, as well as intercultural relation’ (Busch 2010, 72).

In West Mostar, there is a formally designated market place, however, the products themselves suggest that there is a high distribution of unregistered, unregulated products that flow through this market. An example of this is the fresh milk for sale in reused soft drinks bottles. In East Mostar, fresh milk is less readily available and consequently residents must leave the city or enter the West (a journey that can be uncomfortable and potentially dangerous for Bosniaks) in order to buy fresh milk. A small temporary structure in the historic Ottoman centre hosts a daily market, however, outside of the tourist season this market place has very limited use. In extension to these designated market places is an undercurrent of ‘grey market’ trading and barter that happens throughout the city and is most visible along the peripheries of the existing market places. There are a small number of traders in Mostar, from mixed ethnicities (Bosniak, Croat and Roma) who barter with one another and then sell to traders in the old town, and the market place in the West. Caroline Humphrey points towards the economic value of barter exchange arguing that ‘in barter people transact different items (they acquire what they have not got and vice versa) and thus barter tends to link micro economies which, at least in this respect, are dissimilar from one another’ (Humphrey 1992, 107). Trading relationships in Mostar often rely on connecting two distinct economies such as milk and tourist memorabilia (Observations and interviews by author 2012).

In addition to simple exchanges of products, there is a drift in BiH towards a barter system for labour and for larger ‘products’ such as buildings materials.

Interviews in Sarajevo revealed that some professionals have had to adapt to worsening economic conditions by accepting supermarket vouchers or grocery products in exchange for work, and that many built projects in BiH are constrained by the materials and labour that the building contractor can acquire by means of a complex network of borrowing and favours (Interviews by author 2012). Although this is a negative reflection of the current economic climate in BiH, Humphrey argues that ‘it is precisely the links created by barter which establish friendly relations and which cross ethnic and political boundaries’ (Humphrey 1992, 113). Barter exchange is constrained by an essential voluntary and ungoverned contract between two people, thus it creates the social space in which the individuals must engage in dialogue.

Although Mostar is divided into east and west, - there are many overlaps in everyday life - the way the division affects each resident is personal and flexible (Interviews by author 2012). Despite the fact that ‘the weak economy exacerbates divisions, further hindering return and reconciliation’ (Haider 2012, 4), it also forces people to engage with the market and seek the best deal regardless of ethnic affiliation. This establishes an opportunity to bring communities together on the basis of expediency. A significant contributing factor to the division in Mostar is fear of the ‘other’; consequently, if poor

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9. The ‘other’ is a condition explored in relation to a variety of contested conditions. See Wendy Pullan, “Frontier urbanism: the periphery at the centre of contested cities,” The Journal of Architecture (Routledge) 16, no. 1 (2011): 15-35.

economic conditions encourage a discourse between Mostar’s residents this positive by-product of a difficult situation should be nurtured.9 Economic incentives provide opportunities for increased contact and collaboration between differing groups; therefore, it is advantageous to design programmes that encourage economic gain and employment provision because they make inter-ethnic networks of exchange plausible (Haider 2012, 17).

It is commonplace in BiH to purchase dairy, fruit, vegetables, meat, and bakery products from individual vendors. Whilst some of these exchanges happen within formally registered businesses many occur in the market place, or amongst peddlers who occupy the peripheries of designated markets. The routine of the West Mostar market is structured around sale of milk, the limited shelf life of which reduces its window of availability. Within this narrow period, the market flourishes and vendors selling a variety of products all benefit from heightened activity.10 The availability of most products (including non-perishables) closely correlates with the availability of milk, many vendors leaving the market place when milk is no longer for sale.11 An example of this is the presence of informal peddlers; during the period that milk is available, it is common to be approached by peddlers selling a small selection of goods such as a handful of eggs. The popularity of the west market has resulted in the neighbouring car park, playground and abandoned buildings being temporarily occupied on a daily basis for the purpose of trade, thus reemphasising the value of being close to the hub of activity created by informal sales of milk. Additionally, as argued by Haider, Busch, Humphrey and Bakshi, the market place encourages social interaction; the opportunity to negotiate prices and the need for vendors and peddlers to compete with one another means that conversation is a necessity, and hence the social value of the market is enhanced. Despite the fact that the market holds strong potential for interethnic exchange, currently the role of the West Mostar market as a tool for reconciliation is limited due to its position deep within Croat ‘territory’.

It is apparent from these observations of the West Mostar market that the influence of the availability of milk is a significant of factor in the activation of the market place. There is a clear correlation between when milk is available and when the market place is most active. Fresh milk is rarely available in supermarkets or grocery stores where foreign imports of long life milk and milk powder are regularly stocked as substitutes. Rather than being found in shops, fresh milk is sold on street corners, and in stores offering services such as photocopying or legal advice and occasionally within market places (Observations by author, 2012). The milk sold at the market place, given its presentation in recycled plastic bottles, is part of BiH’s large informal sector that is rooted in rural communities. It is not uncommon in rural BiH to own a cow or a goat; these are huge commodities to the rural population. Direct access to fresh dairy products and meat allow families to live off the land and to establish micro-economies. Despite this agricultural dependency, Bosnian and Herzegovinian dairies are purchasing and processing only fifty per cent of the milk produced internally (The World Bank, 2010). The remaining milk that is unaccounted for in official statistics is consumed within local dairies and neighbourhood micro-economies or it is transported to the city and sold by the milk farmers directly. Milk is readily available in rural areas, however, in Mostar it requires the customer to know exactly where to go in order to find it.

Consequently, the milk trade holds the potential to bring people into a sphere of dialogue as they negotiate the purchase of a limited product. Furthermore, projects based on the production and sale of milk have already proved

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10. The fresh milk sold is un-pasteurised and therefore is it is brought into the centre daily, fresh from the cows or goats in the rural areas.

11. These observations were taken by the author between August and December 2012. A series of daily observations of the West Mostar market were conducted between 2nd-5th December 2012, observations were recorded in photographs and were supported by numerous conversations and informal interviews.

Crowds Gather at the West Mostar Market 2012, 9.30am

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West Mostar Market 2012, 11am

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successful in BiH. For example, the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) provided dairy cows and lacto freezers to the villages of Sevarlije and Pridjel Gornji and facilitated the formation of an Association of Milk Producers. This allowed for milk producers to act collectively and to develop a joint market access strategy. The association, together with a dairy, established milk collection and storage stations. This increased the production of milk and the income for the community, encouraging further collaboration. This venture also contributed to improved contact and relations between ethnic groups, as the association was comprised of both Croat and Bosniak returnees, and the owner of the dairy was Serb (Haider 2012, 17). This example also emphasises the possibility for an essential product, in this case milk, to harbour cooperative relationships and enable fragmented communities to organise themselves into coherent businesses. The Srebrenica Milk Road Project which provided a similar community enabling scheme also facilitated ‘new informal ties between Bosniak and Serb farmers…and the development of reciprocity and trust: ‘through their involvement in the project, many of the beneficiaries also began to share equipment, help each other out, share information and soon became friends’ (UNDP 2009, 98 cited by Haider, 2012, pp. 17-18).

Although the appeal of fresh milk has a limited role in drawing Bosniaks into Croat territory, this could change if the catalyst of activity were to be within the ‘Neutral Zone’ of the city. This thesis hypothesises that the partial formalisation of a milk market in a location within the contested ‘Neutral Zone’ of Mostar could enhance inter-ethnic exchange and be a suitable, and politically mutual use of this territory.

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HOUSING, LAND AND PROPERTY RIGHTS TO ABANDONED BUILDINGS Whilst milk and other informal economies present themselves as suitable and potentially beneficial programs, re-activation of Mostar’s former city centre is restrained by multiple factors such as unresolved housing, land, and property (HLP) ownership rights. According to United Nations (UN) policy, until recently, issues of HLP had not been adequately and consistently addressed as fundamental peace buildings strategies. This has indirectly hindered Mostar’s development of a formal framework to address its abandoned buildings (Leckie, 2005). BiH in particular has been affected by unresolved HLP disputes because of its shift from a large socialist state (Yugoslavia) to a small and fragile democracy (further complicating HLP rights because of changes to the legal system), as well as a huge percentage of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees still waiting to return (UNHCR 2013).12 Annex 7 of the DPA stipulates: ‘all refugees and displaced persons have the right to freely return to their homes of origin. They shall have the right to have restored to them property of which they were deprived in the course of hostilities since 1991 and to be compensated for any property that cannot be restored to them’ (The Dayton Peace Agreement, 1995).

BiH’s political fragility has hindered its ability to address fundamental urban planning policy that could be used to rejuvenate abandoned buildings. Mostar, in particular, is plagued by distracted political priorities, whereby nationalistic gain has overshadowed the rehabilitation of the city. Policy regarding abandoned property in BiH has been abused in order to legitimise acts of ‘ethnic cleansing’ that were a primary goal of the conflict. A key contribution by the international community (IC) was its role in ensuring the retraction of such laws. For instance: ‘Republika Srpska (RS) issued a ‘Law on Use of Abandoned Property’ in 1996 that revoked ownership rights in cases where the owner had not been making active use of the housing in question ‘... such provisions were used almost exclusively against non-Serbs displaced from RS controlled territory during the conflict’ (Leckie, 2005). Through efforts made by the IC this law was withdrawn and replaced with the Law on the Cessation of Application of the Law on the Use of Abandoned Property, protecting the rights of the owners, possessors and users of the property before 1991 or its date of abandonment. Article 7 of this law states: ‘The owner, possessor or user of abandoned real property, or his/her authorised representative, shall have the right to file a claim at any time for the repossession or disposal in another way of his/her abandoned property. The right of the owner to file a claim shall not become obsolete’ (Office of the High Representative, 1998). Therefore, reinstating the rights of returning refugees and IDPs to claim the ruins and abandoned land of Mostar’s ‘Neutral Zone’.13 However, almost two decades have passed since the signing of the DPA, and it is necessary to readdress such policy and its hindrance to potential reconciliation efforts, particularly in the case of commercial buildings that may be the property of the state. The sensitivity of this potential compromise is critical to the realisation of the proposed intervention.

At the time of writing, the ownership of a vast percentage of Mostar’s former city centre is unresolved. We can assume that the former Glass Bank and the Old Privredna Bank buildings are state owned as private bank ownership in the centrally planned economy of the Former Yugoslavia is unlikely. The

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state’s claim on these buildings remains uncertain, however, the government’s failure to address the use of these buildings has given them an ambiguous status.14 The Glass Bank currently acts as a source of revenue for local residents as well as providing shelter (both for the homeless as well a meeting place), recreation (an informal exhibition space as well as a private gathering space), and a useful shortcut and node of connection. Although these uses are limited, and are exploited by only a fraction of the city’s population, they represent the diminished clarity that has formed between such public /private spaces as a direct result of failure to deal with abandoned plots. This behaviour also demonstrates an established attempt to claim these spaces as public; an essential aspect of the integrated strategy for the legal acquisition of these buildings that is proposed in this thesis.

12. 58,578 Refugees and 113,000 Internally Displaced Persons Originating from BiH have yet to return to their places of origin (UNHCR, 2013) 13. The Law on the Cessation of Application of the Law on the Use of Abandoned Property, although written in response to the situation in RS, also addressed the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina where Mostar is located.

14. An interview by the author with a member of the city planning council indicated that a private owner might hold the rights to both the former bank buildings (Demirovic, 2011)

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01

CATALYST

MILK MARKET SHELTERED

BY ABANDONED TOWER BLOCK

STRUCTURAL ASSESSMENT OF ALL RUINS ON THE SPANISH SQUARE TO DETERMINE THE BEST LOCATION FOR INITIAL INTERVENTION

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Destroyed Column, The Old Privredna Bank

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A MILK MARKET Thus far, it has been established that selling of fresh milk and daily commodities offers the opportunity for shared activity and social interaction.

A milk market in the redundant city centre has the potential to reactivate the stigmatised space and simultaneously aid economic growth. However, the lack of appropriate policy for dealing with the ruins, which dominate the potential bridging site between East and West, also requires attention. Therefore, the re-claiming of Mostar’s abandoned ruins and land for public use or private development is an essential prerequisite to enabling a milk market and its ancillary uses.

In a context where political action focuses primarily on nationalist gain, multiple ownerships of damaged buildings are unlikely to be resolved. As such, and against a background of widespread illegal construction, informal development is often favoured as the most convenient means of meeting individual and community needs. However, ad hoc strategies that aim to deal with HLP rights, but fail to acquire the necessary permissions, often cause increased tensions and can aggravate conflict (Leckie, 2005). Furthermore, informal development can cause problems for future progress. For example, it is estimated that between sixty and seventy per cent of all construction since 1990 in Albania has been illegal, a factor which has discouraged foreign investment (Koprencka and Muharremi 2010, 43). Although currently restricted by Annex 7 of the DPA, compulsory purchase orders, such as those imposed on Beirut by the Solidere real-estate company, may provide an alternative to informal development (Vloeberghs 2008, 5-10). However, while this strategy, which exchanged land ownership for company shares, allowed Beirut to recover its architectural prosperity and reinstate the role of the former city centre, it was built upon a prosperous pre-war history. Its appeal to investors was substantially different than the long-abandoned Socialist centre of Mostar. Without private investment, the city of Mostar lacks the financial stability to implement such a strategy (Demirovic, 2013). In this situation, other means are necessary to stimulate growth. The design proposal detailed here is used as a means to reactivate a connection through the city centre, which in turn may raise the value of the surrounding abandoned plots, and increase incentive for investment.

By proving that buildings and land have long established common rights such as public footpaths and shelters, a community may be able to claim rights to public ownership (Mitchell 2012). Precedents suggest that claiming abandoned HLP is most successful when the operation is supported by local pressure group action, who campaign to the authorities to adopt the neglected land for public use. In Mostar, the use of abandoned HLP for the sale of milk has the potential to establish a case for the public to claim ruins, whilst also encouraging Mostar’s residents to engage with the buildings and abandoned land. Public claim of un-used state owned buildings has been explored through the work of the Platforma 9,81 in Zagreb, who explored the potential of inner-city wastelands. Identifying these spaces as suitable for cultural activity, they experimented with temporary occupation by hosting musicals in former slaughterhouses, and symposiums in empty movie theatres. ‘The result was to spur a public debate that ultimately reached the politicians, who agreed to make spaces available for independent cultural activity’ (Blazevic 2008, 111114).15 Taking this as a model, the following strategy speculates on a potential

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15. See also (2013). Claim. In P. Oswalt, K. Overmeyer, & P. Misselwitz (Eds.), Urban Catalyst The Power of Temporary Use (J. Gussen, A. Pehnt, & R. van Dyck, Trans., pp.

272-281). Berlin: DOM Publishers.

course of action for Mostar.

It is envisaged that the initial point of action would involve a Local NGO or community-based organisation (CBO) calling a meeting to gather support for claiming abandoned HLP in Mostar. Interested parties and stakeholders such as local NGOs, CBOs, local residents and trades-people, could then establish a co-operative group with the intention of reclaiming abandoned sites for social and cultural uses that encourage reactivation. As suggested by the research, the milk market is a potentially fruitful and valid means of reclaiming the derelict HLP. In order to find a suitable site for the market ruins and abandoned plots in the city centre would need to be assessed in terms of location, porosity and structural integrity. According to the site survey conducted in December 2011, the abandoned Glass Bank presents the most promising conditions due to its structural stability and its position on the Spanish Square, the former centre of inter-ethnic interaction in pre-war Mostar. The Glass Bank is abandoned and damp, however its condition is reasonably good as it was used as a sniper base during the war, and not subjected to shelling by the Croats (Interviews by author, 2011). The building has a large atrium on the ground floor, which is exposed to the street, the fenestration, having been removed. Consequently, the edge between pavement and building has softened but the space still provides enough shelter to support a small market place. The heavily exposed concrete mass of the Glass Bank provides cool areas for storage and the basement and empty lift shafts provide reasonable refrigeration for the hot summer months.

As the milk that will be sold here is un-pasteurised, it would be sold quickly and brought to the city fresh each day from the countryside, eliminating the need for over-night storage. In order for the Glass Bank to be a sanitary place to sell milk, it is proposed that a simple screed floor is laid to falls to allow water from the leaking ceiling, and from the market place itself, to run off into the existing wide gutters that frame the room.

The initial inhabitation of the Glass Bank would enable the co-operative to gather relevant evidence of established public use of the abandoned HLP. The daily occurrence of the milk market has the potential to draw people to this part of the city, and heighten public awareness of the problem of unclaimed HLP, whilst highlighting the opportunities to inhabit and extract economic value from them. To advance this process the co-operative would need to encourage ad-hoc uses of the ruins, whilst continuing to collect evidence of their social value. As the milk market becomes more widely known and visited, it has the capability to attract more venders and peddlers, the Glass Bank’s position targeting a larger potential customer base than if it was located on either side of the ‘Neutral Zone’. Evidence of established public interest in these spaces, would then enable the co-operative to put pressure on politicians to address urban planning policy regarding unclaimed or abandoned HLP, and encourage known owners of derelict sites to either sell or invest in them based on the increased social and commercial value of the site. The continued growth of public awareness and heightened pressure on politicians could increase the likelihood of a reassessment of urban planning policy. In this case, the OHR would need to oversee any changes to planning policy to insure that the DPA and other relevant laws are respected. A change in policy could allow the abandoned, non-residential buildings to be claimed for public use, and this and the occupation of the Glass Bank made legal. This legalisation would enable UN agencies and the city planning council, to engage in dialogue regarding the use of these buildings, and to join co-operative efforts to ensure a democratic process.

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Structural Damage, Privredna Bank

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Internal Damage of the Privredna Bank

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The concrete faรงade is hanging off the building, in the south-west corner the facade is the most complete.

The concrete walls enclosing the staircase provide some shear support to the building. However, these walls are damaged from shelling and rusting re-bar is protruding through the skin.

A pattern of holes in a direct line down through the building are made worse by the pools of water that fall into them.

Masonry partition walls have collapsed and fail to provide further shear support.

Many of the columns are disintegrating and revealing reinforcement. Some of the columns are damaged to the point that they are twisted and merely hang from the floor they originally supported.

There is significant damage to the first floor plate, including large holes from shelling and excessively exposed re-bar. This floor is extremely fragile and largely inaccessible.

The bottom corner of the building is supported by a column that is severely damaged - the concrete cylinder rests on a twisted, rusting lump of reinforcement.

Large holes in the ground floor are filled with collapsed rubble and overgrown weeds.

Structural Dissection Privredna Bank

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There are many cracks in the floor plates, these have been caused by war damage but also through prolonged exposure to the elements. Water has penetrated the concrete and caused expansion of the reinforcement and hence further cracking of the concrete slabs.

There are no large holes in the floor plates, however metal piping has been removed and this has resulted in further exposure of the internal slab to destructive weathering.

Over time, rusting of the reinforcement will cause pulverisation of the concrete.

Concrete shear walls help to support the rusting structure.

Although most columns in he Glass Bank are in reasonable condition, the brick columns in the atrium are delicate.

Large puddles fill the atrium and water collected on the exposed top floor drips through the whole building.

Structural Dissection of the Glass Bank

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Structural Damage, The Glass Bank

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The Glass Bank, Open to the Pavement

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1 2 3 4 5 6

Glass Bank/ Milk Market New Floor 1:20 1 2 3

4 5 6

Reclaimed Ceramic Tiles Sloped Screed Floor 20 mm Insulation Vapour Barrier 15 mm Aluminium Gutter Lining 175/320 mm Existing Drainage Gutter Existing Exposed Concrete of Glass Bank Ruin

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IMPACT OF THE CATALYST As both Bosniak and Croat vendors and customers begin sharing the working environment of the market place, a dialogue between the two communities may start to grow. This has been seen in other work-based reconciliation programs whereby ‘this practical interdependence resulted in coffee visits to each other’s homes. […] Working together or drinking coffee together was not necessarily an expression of love or deep friendship, but it was at least a sign of the acknowledgement of local sharedness, the need for social exchange and, to a certain extent, mutual hospitality’ (Stefansson 2010, 68-69 cited by Haider, 2012). Simply providing a space for the informal economies of each community to intertwine and grow off of one another, is likely to encourage connections between Bosniaks and Croats . A project with similar motivations was initiated by a Danish Refugee Council representative, who set up a minibus network so that people could travel to their pre-war homes, allowed small networks of favours to evolve, and with this, a level of trust and empathy to grow (Haider 2012, 19).16 The availability of previously abandoned, but private HLP would open up a sphere of opportunities for Mostar. The milk market is a first step towards addressing the lack of facilities for shared space, however, the release of these buildings to the public does not fully address the underlying tensions that still dominate construction in this area. While localism and community engagement are a crucial means of relieving some of these tensions, participatory planning would not necessarily prevent antagonistic tensions arising from more extremist groups on either side, particularly within the political sphere.17 Therefore the subsequent stages outlined here are structured to build trust, and foster cross community dialogue, incrementally, so that the socio-political arena of Mostar’s ‘Neutral Zone’ is established as a shared space where increasingly independent buildings can develop. Ideally the OHR would oversee the community driven process to ensure that the proposals are legal, appropriate, and in particular, that all moves respect Annex 7 of the DPA.

16. See also Humphrey, C. (1992). Fair Dealing, Just Rewards: The Ethics of Barter in North-East Nepal. In C. Humphrey, & S. Hugh-Jones (Eds.), Barter, Exchange and Value An Anthropological Approach (pp. 107-141). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

17. For examples of the complexity of participatory planning initiatives in divided cities, see O’Dowd, L., & Komarova, M. (2010). Contesting Territorial Fixity? A Case Study of Regeneration in Belfast. Urban Studies , 34 (4).

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Potential Storage Space, Glass Bank

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re-use

LOCATING THE NEXT ANCHOR POINT ‘While a shared city centre is certainly no substitute for lived urban togetherness and everyday solidarity, the latter can certainly not be achieved without some symbolic commitment in the semiotic landscape of the twin city. Thus it is no exaggeration to claim that the downward spiral of Guben/ Gubin will have to be tackled from within its core’ (Dürrschmidt 2008, 65).

Dürrschmidt’s argument, touches on two important points; the reconciliatory role of symbolism and the importance of addressing social divisions from within the physical barriers that divide them. This thesis takes the position that symbolic commitments to reconstruction are detrimental to the reconciliatory efforts made by smaller-scale more socially sustainable programmes at work in BiH. Traditionally, in BiH, reconstruction projects are designed to replace the damaged building with an exact replica of the pre-war version, most famously the Old Bridge in Mostar and the National Library in Sarajevo.

Although the social implications of such projects are sometimes positive, and work well to restore pride within the local community, there is also a common misconception that these reconstructions will ‘heal wounds’ and disguise the social realities of the war (Calame and Pasic 2009). Such projects are often based on a shallow understanding of the divisions in Mostar and as such, they fail to engage with the community and provide only a symbolic projection of reconciliation. Jon Calame and Amir Pasic argue that the reconstruction of Mostar’s Stari Most, the Old Bridge, provided a tourist based income for the city and a symbolic portrait of reconciliation for the global media, but failed to help the residents of Mostar on any real terms; ‘not until some firms or some factories are rebuilt where those people could work will we need the Old City [...] if only the eyes are full and the pockets empty, then there is nothing’ (Calame and Pasic 2009). Replica reconstruction, along the former front line, is contentious, expensive, and does little to address social reconciliation or economic growth. Maurice Mitchell argues that ‘in a situation of scarce resources where change is unpredictable, incremental moves tend to work better than huge capital inputs especially in today’s economic climate as they test the waters without causing major upset and incurring debt’ (Mitchell 2012). Therefore, the construction element of the second stage of the project sets out to establish a technique for the layers to follow, creating small-scale structural interventions that facilitate the use of the damaged urban fabric thus adding significance to the site and its value in everyday life.

Dürrschmidt’s case that the polarisation of a city must be tackled from within the crux of the division is central this project and leads to the location of the second anchor point. From the analysis of the social, political, and economic conditions that are critical to the future of Mostar’s city centre, it is evident that a new–build approach would, at this stage, be unwise, as it is likely to aggravate existing tensions. Whilst the initial moves, made in stage one, bring people together on habitual and economic grounds, the intention is understated in its scale, and requires continued socio-economic investment in the area. The milk market occupies territory on the boundary of West Mostar and the ‘Neutral Zone’ and, by stimulating shared daily activity, begins a process of softening this edge. The second point of intervention is located on the opposite edge, on Santica Street. There are two key nodes of activity already present on this eastern edge; OKC Abrašević (The Youth Cultural Centre Abrašević) and the Nansen Dialogue Centre, both of which actively encourage shared activity, and are regularly frequented by young people in Mostar. Abrašević is a meeting

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Structural Damage, Private Building Santica Street

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point for NGO’s and informal community groups.18 The centre engages with the city through arts and culture, and it provides space for concerts, this plays a vital role in bringing youths from mixed ethno-national backgrounds together, as most schools still operate as separate institutions for Bosniaks and Croats following recommendations set within the DPA (Haider 2012).

Throughout Mostar, Abrašević is known as a shared space, and is a popular relief from the homogeneity offered either side of the ‘Neutral Zone’. The bar, along with facilities such as film screenings and a radio station, is a vital part of Abrašević’s appeal, providing youths with a simple place to get to know one another. The Nansen Dialogue Centre, nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012, occupies the formal side of reconciliatory activity in Mostar, providing workshops, seminars and lectures. The positioning of these two existing institutions on Santica Street, the eastern edge of the ‘Neutral Zone’, offers an opportunity to build on these initiatives. Abrašević already engages in interventions in public space and the abandoned ruins, however, thus far, although these have been powerful artistic gestures aimed at challenging the conception of divided space, they have been of a limited scale physically and socially.

It is critical that the space between the milk market on the western edge, and the youth centre on the eastern edge of the ‘Neutral Zone’ is strengthened to form a lateral link between them. This is the core trajectory of this design research as it is the activation of the space between these strategic nodal points, which will, in turn, facilitate the incremental growth of a network of connections through the crux of the division.

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18. See http://www.okcabrasevic.org/

The exterior brickwork is disintegrating, revealing its hollow interior. In some areas plants have taken root causing further cracking of walls and floors.

The walls are covered in bullet holes, the impact of these has reduced the support provided by the partition walls.

Evidence of the building suffering from direct impact of shelling. The damaged concrete has deteriorated in condition due to prolonged exposure to weathering.

A hole in the floor plate reveals the fragile state of the concrete.

A damaged column props up the cantilevered south side of the building.

The brick partition walls are very badly damaged therefore failing to provide shear support to the building.

The steel frame of the former entrance glazing may be providing some structural support tot he fragile floor resting above it.

Structural Dissection, Private Building Santica Street

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A tree growing inside the building is causing structural damage to the masonry building.

The masonry has crumbled away so that only one layer of brick is left supporting a heavy load from above.

The roof has collapsed leaving the structure without this element of stabilisation. Additional exposure to the remaining structure is exacerbated by a lack of roof.

The central section of the front facade is critically damaged, this reduces the stability of the remaining building.

Structural Dissection: Abandoned Building Santica Street

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The upper windows of the front facade have retained their frames which give some support to the bricks collapsing around them.

Abandoned Building Santica Street, Anchor Point two, Viewed from the Glass Bank

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STRUCTURAL TIMBER PROPS It is evident from site based observations and analysis, that many of the ruins occupying the East and West frontiers are in a serious state of damage.

Consequently, this stage of the project identifies a ruin on the eastern edge, which is in a critical, but salvageable, condition, to prop-up and reuse. Drawing on local carpentry techniques with attention to simplicity of assembly, this stage introduces a timber structural prop, the use of which is explored in different ways. Its design has evolved from an investigation of how a construction technique might be rationalised in order to produce a variety of scales of space, and facilitate different user needs. Treating this common ingredient in a variety of ways will fashion a harmonised, but not homogeneous, ribbon of new structures through the stigmatised ground of the city centre.

Timber has been identified as a suitable material for propping because of its availability, its traditional roots within Bosnian and Herzegovinian construction, its capacity to engage local skills and to provide training opportunities, and its potential to contribute to timber production in BiH. Timber is widely available in BiH as fifty three percent of the country is covered by forest, and BiH’s long traditions in forestry and wood processing have made timber a primary export (Foreign Investment Promotion Agency, 2011, p. 4; Building Facility for SMEs and Capacity, p. 2).19 Production of timber in BiH is exceeding demand making timber a cheap viable material to work with in Mostar’s fragile economic condition. This project uses minimally processed timber, and local labour to refine and construct the timber props. The ‘profit’ will lie in employment opportunities that emerge and the socio-political (and economic) benefits of reconstruction. Consequently, by demonstrating the potential use of timber as a cheap but creative material, the project will contribute to the strengthening of the timber industry in BiH, which was once highly regarded for its quality. The use of timber would integrate skills training, and the use of the prop would give the community a defined method for propping other ruins for re-use. Funding such an initiative is likely to be supported by a UN agency such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) who support projects that develop local skills and build on existing industries (UNDP 2012, p. 8).

By making the ruins safe and usable, they move beyond being potent reminders of the conflict and begin to facilitate and support a potential growing need for workshops, event, and storage space required by Abrašević and the Nansen Dialogue Centre. At the outset, the language of the propping systems, suggests a temporary intervention. This is in order that the scheme naturally evolve with the metabolism of the two activated sites, the milk market and the re-used ruin, and to minimise socio-political tension aggravated by a new build project. Furthermore, addressing basic structural needs as a starting point, the intervention can evolve in complexity and formality at a pace that is suited to the gradual reactivation of the contested ground and the subsequent social dialogue this facilitates.

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Initial propping experiments supported loads of unstable floor plates and hold large pieces of concrete that were critically damaged. Timber elements created grid; this was then manipulated in density according to the damage.

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Standard length sawn timber elements and off cuts stabilise fragile masonry walls and frame different levels of enclosure 92

19. Wood exports account for twenty percent of total exports in BiH. Fifty five percent of timber produced in BiH is exported with a very low profit margin, due to minimal processing.

This timber is then imported back to BiH, at a much higher price, once it has been processed into furniture or joinery by countries such as Italy, Slovenia, and Germany despite the fact that BiH has a world-class wood processing industry. (Foreign Investment Promotion Agency, 2011, p. 9) The war damaged timber production capacities and disrupted market connections, hence the re-introduction of timber as a primary building material in Mostar will contribute to regaining the former strength of this industry, so that it can once again be a major source of employment and income. (Building Facility for SMEs and Capacity, p. 2)

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LEVELS OF ENCLOSURE In order to support a range of inhabitations, the propping device can be manipulated in order to create diverse environments. In the re-use of the ruin, these environments take on a similar scale as the walls of the ruin dictate relatively small-scale spaces.

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IMPACT OF RE-USING The architectural and political intent in the re-use of the ruin is deliberately under-stated in order to delicately build on existing social initiatives. The potential impact of the re-use is therefore subtle. The activation of the ruin begins to soften the eastern edge of the divide and in doing so allows a link between East and West to be strengthened. This establishes further activation of the abandoned territory between East and West, because of its inherent existence as the most efficient link between the two active edges.

The propping of the ruin has the capacity to kick-start a metabolism, both materially and occupationally, and to re-address the way in which ruins are treated. This could enable many more buildings to be opened up as usable spaces. In Nicosia, there are numerous carpentry and joinery workshops amongst the buildings that border the buffer zone and, given that these are low rent areas, such uses are viable. Some of the properties are owned by the ‘other’ community and protected by the municipalities from being sold or developed.

Light industrial use seems to be perceived as an acceptable and temporary use (Bakshi 2012). A similar usage of Mostar’s ruins, that are otherwise restricted from demolition or development by Annex 7 of the DPA, has the potential to reactivate parts of the city centre, establish a greater use of the site, and contribute to employment opportunities by providing low rent spaces to small businesses.

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UNDERSTANDING PRIDE THROUGH DESIGN Mostar’s damaged urban topography has exacerbated the polarizing effects of the ‘Neutral Zone’; neither Bosniak nor Croat communities recognise this area as their own and there is no social or built infrastructure in place to allow it to grow as a shared space. The abandoned buildings and failed constructions have further contributed to the segregation and the lack of facilities rooted in the everyday necessities of urban life, this prevents the area from fostering any level of civic participation (Pullan 2006, p. 120).

However, in Mostar’s residential areas, either side of the division, there is a sense of pride projected onto the streetscapes. Gardens are manicured against the ruins of neighbour’s former houses and people occupy these spaces to play chess or drink coffee. The third stage of intervention explores the premise of pride, how it is constituted in a fractured society, and addresses the potential for design to stimulate a sense of ownership and dignity in the ‘Neutral Zone’.

The milk market, and the re-use of an existing damaged building, works to soften the edges that create a buffer zone in central Mostar. In order to strengthen these anchor points, stage three occupies, and begins to activate, the derelict land between them. Drawing on the barter economy encouraged by the milk market, stage three proposes that the abandoned land between the Glass Bank milk market and re-used ruin be occupied by a larger market place, evoking a significance of place for an everyday activity that is important and yet routine in the daily life of Mostar’s citizens.

The informal economy is a highly valuable asset to the social dynamic of Mostar. It enables inter-ethnic dialogue and provides a vital income to many impoverished families in a climate of high unemployment (International Crisis Group 2009). Building on the vibrancy of existing informal activities within the city, and the construction of a larger shelter, this stage aims to encourage the continuation of the intricacies and informalities of Bosnian-Herzegovinian life. The building is the first element of this incremental design strategy to draw attention to itself through its architectural language, making the first step towards an independent structure.

The top-down decision to mark the city centre as ‘Neutral’ in order to encourage reconciliation, without addressing the fractured physical and social conditions, has proved unsuccessful. A construction that marks a new beginning, without being metaphorical or overly symbolic, and provides both economic and social incentives, has the potential to encourage people to use this area of the city once again. To clearly mark this change of ‘Neutral’ space, to shared space, the construction takes on a significant scale, and its form is articulated so as to emphasise the link between the East and West interventions. Here architectural expression is seen as key to restoring a sense of shared and community owned space, as ‘civic pride in a large part feeds on residents identification with significant edifices’ (Dürrschmidt 2008, 65).

The restored church tower in Guben/Gubin has worked to ‘bridge the gap between the two everyday cultures within the twin city, but also to set a visible marker into the symbolic landscape of the city that announces “the civic spirit of this – supposedly dying – city is alive”’ (Dürrschmidt 2008, 66-67). Whilst symbolism has proved to be an unhealthy attitude towards reconstruction in Mostar (Calame and Pasic 2009), the idea of a new landmark has been largely unexplored. With the exception of the Old Bridge, which has become deeply

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rooted in Bosniak culture, Mostar lacks a landmark that all citizens can identify as a part of their living city. Therefore, stage three explores how a structure to frame a market place can incorporate simple elements such as shade and shelter, in order to encourage an activation of the abandoned ground, whilst also providing a significant building.

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How can elements such as shelter and shade contribute to the activation of contested ground?

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ENGAGING LOCAL SKILLS The construction of the market is designed to evolve in stages and its materiality to grow in both formality and permanence, thus testing and adapting to the social environment, before asserting itself as permanent and independent. The kinked form of the market place has evolved out of a series of essential needs: the desire for a landmark; the emphasis of a link between East and West; and the responsibility of the design to provide employment and facilitate the learning of new skills. The use of local carpentry and joinery would expand on the initiatives for timber usage and skills development initiated in the re-use of the ruin. As timber is BiH’s best known natural resource, the incorporation of such an element into the reconstruction of Mostar’s city centre has the potential to establish a sense of pride within the city and a clear demonstration of indigenous resources and local skills (Foreign Investment Promotion Agency 2011). The employment that the building of such a structure would generate would bring skilled labourers from both the Bosniak and Croat communities together into a working relationship.

Furthermore, engaging local skills and labour would encourage a sense of shared ownership of the public space that the structure frames.

Drawing on the construction technique developed in the re-use of the ruin, the market place is constructed from the same repetitive timber element but is configured in a different way in order to span a larger space. Although the same timber element is repeated, and in most cases, the same simple fixing and joinery techniques are used, the structure is much more complex in both form and scale. This is significant because it creates a notable building but it also allows the construction process to build on skills developed during the propping of the ruin, its complexity offering further scope for training opportunities.

The market place is designed to latch onto the semi-abandoned construction of the Croatian National Theatre, which, although used, currently acts as a barrier between East and West, as its appearance suggests abandonment on all but the western side. Despite the controversial disposition of the theatre, if the building could be reconceived to encourage a shared space, it may help to ease the tension and segregation it implies. Whilst it is overly ambitious at this stage to suggest the theatre itself becomes a used, shared facility, it is conceivable to imagine that a semi-independent structure, propped up by the theatre, and constructed using local labour, could function in this way.

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How can a construction technique be rationalised to create different scales and qualities of space?

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Simple Butt Joints Enable a Complex Structure to be made using Local Labour

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Cast Concrete Footings Provide Stability and Protect the Timber from Rotting

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Wood Fibre-Cement Panels are Dispersed to Allow Dappled Light to Fall into the Market Place

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MATERIALITY Wood fibre-cement panels, made from cement, sand, and wood pulp from the finely ground by-product of the sawn timber elements, are used for the shingled tiles of the Market’s skin. Pulp fibres from the sawn timber are significantly cheaper than other fibre options and are therefore suitable for building in Mostar’s weak economy (Teixeira 2012, 2). The production of the panels is a simple process whereby the wood pulp, finely ground sand, and cement are bound together with water. This mixture is then rolled out onto a conveyor belt and pressed. The panels are cut to shape using high-pressure water and are then baked inside steel tubes (MarleyEternitLtd 2011). Mostar’s Aluminij (Aluminum) factory is likely to be able to provide the facilities for the final stages of this production therefore extending the branch of working connections that this project aims to create.

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THE ROLE OF THE MARKET PLACE AND ECONOMIC INCENTIVE IN CONTESTED SPACE The social role of the market is paramount to the proposal, as it would establish ‘a meeting point for large crowds of people belonging to different ethnic groups, who have no other opportunities to come together’ (Sik and Wallace 1999, 699). The building acts as both a beacon in the damaged urban fabric, and as a meeting place, which has the potential to stimulate interethnic interaction and local collaboration ‘in sites of informally organised trade’ (Mörtenböck and Mooshammer 2008, 350). The West Mostar market, demonstrates that conversation is an essential tool for successful trade, and so the market establishes a place where differences are accepted in order to support trading relationships. ‘People define themselves as different from those with whom they exchange products in long-terms relations, but they are also dependant on, and need to maintain trust with such groups’ (Humphrey 1992, 107). It is because the market place is a critical point of both interaction and conflict in most cities, that such a vibrant and adaptable place can transform differences and conflicts into a working tool. Bakshi describes the role of work and trade in the peaceful coexistence of Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities in pre-conflict Nicosia, emphasising that ‘men developed personal and cultural ties thanks to mixed guilds, businesses requiring close cooperation, and the interaction between buyers and sellers’ (Bakshi, , 2012, p.

113).

Fundamentally, the market place exists on the premise of economic gain and its adaptability in providing a place to sell, buy, or simply meet, makes it a suitable venture for Mostar. It is because of ‘the prospect of a brisk sale or the chance to sell items on at other markets, because of friendships, dependencies, liabilities or debts to suppliers, […] that people come together in an environment where they can benefit from other worlds’ (Mörtenböck and Mooshammer 2008, 357). Additionally, the market place encapsulates the ‘neutrality’ that Mostar’s ‘Neutral Zone’ is lacking because markets behave as places of transient inhabitation, allowing dynamic boundaries to grow that negotiate deregulated conditions and controlled order (Mörtenböck and Mooshammer 2008, 348).

The market has the potential to enable the ‘Neutral Zone’ to be established as a place of activity and exchange rather than abandoned land, whilst continuing to function as a buffer between East and West. ‘Neutrality’ in the market place could be interpreted in an organic way by offering a shared space that welcomes and thrives on difference. In Nicosia, Turkish-Cypriots venture into the Greek-Cypriot side of the city to shop for goods that are cheaper, or unavailable in the north, thus demonstrating the role of commerce as a tool for negotiating ethnic difference (Conflict in Cities and the Contested State 2012, 2).

Providing jobs, both in the construction of the market place and by encouraging a central place for people to trade may help to alleviate social tensions, not only because it ‘ literally generates the financial capital for people to ‘move on’, but also because it has the capacity to stretch the existing mould of social relation¬ships by fostering new relationships’ (O’Dowd and Komarova 2010). A mutual understanding that grows from Bosniak and Croats working side by side would make it harder for politicians to seek votes on ethnic grounds, and communities may begin to expect more from their local governments than territorial gain, thus contributing to the growth of a more sustainable community (Haider 2012, 12).

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IMPACT OF THE SHARED OCCUPATION The impact of a significant structure in Mostar’s city centre would be considerable; it has the potential to change the image of the dilapidated city centre, and in doing so would encourage the activation of the ‘Neutral Zone’. In many cases of the attempted rehabilitation of contested ground, the emphasis on community building and empowerment can detract from the pressing need for material investment and the provision of built space for interaction while the literature suggests that both are critical to the instigation of urban solidarity (Amin and Stephen 1997, 424). Consequently, the form of the market place reaches beyond a pragmatic design response, providing the city with not only a shared market place, but a place that is significant in its material manifestation.

The positioning of the market relates to Mostar’s pre-war communist era shopping topography; a necklace of activity connected by the Hit Supermarket and the demolished Rasvitak in East Mostar. This is significant, as interaction appears to be conditioned by the memory of sharing and personal relations, in addition to pragmatic considerations (Conflict in Cities and the Contested State 2012, 3). Thus, the position of the market works to re-orientate shopping habits by reinstating elements of pre-war shared space. This offers Mostarians the opportunity and choice to integrate on the basis of practical benefits that compliment the existing informal trades and cultural norm of market place based shopping in Mostar.

The market place, being based on a form of difference that thrives on the mixing of people, trades, economies and communities, can absorb, defend against, and potentially play a role in the way Mostar’s inter-ethnic conflicts are played out. A public space that supports this ‘intermingling’ of difference ‘can be a source of economic creativity, rather than a source of intolerance for strangers, fear and other properties of closure and decline’ (Amin and Stephen 1997, 423). This, in turn, can help to foster a genuine sense of belonging and shared pride and dignity in formerly vacant, and stigmatised space. Furthermore, providing employment would enable a daily dialogue between Bosniaks and Croats, this would reduce tensions and may encourage further overlaps and mixing. This has been seen in many divided cities, as a community worker in Belfast advocates; ‘you know to me employment is a big thing ... and I think that’s why a lot of people’s attitudes maybe starting to change because up to their teens a riot is like a recreational thing for them. It’s fun! ... But then you get kids who go into the employment market and then they get a job and they are mingling and they are socialising and then it’s like those kids then move on. The kids that don’t have the jobs, don’t have the money, don’t have access to it and don’t get socialising will always get stuck in a ghetto in either community’ (O’Dowd and Komarova 2010).

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The permeable structure allows water to penetrate the building’s skin. Herzegovina’s climate is dry most of the year, and the aggressive summer heat makes shading the primary concern. As the building varies in levels of enclosure, the inhabitation can expand and contract into the best-suited environments according to weather.

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The large canopy of the market place enables for the use of ad-hoc means of shelter and shade to be added by vendors, thriving on the traditional sense of informality and mismatch found in such vibrant places.

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GROWTH AND GRADUAL PERMANENCY OF THE MARKET PLACE The festival-like structure of the market place, established from the overspill of the milk market and the nurturing of existing informal economies, would evolve so that its significance and formality develop over time. The incremental phases of the design reduce start up requirements and costs by enabling an active condition to grow before implementing facilities for the cooling of fresh produce, lockable space and basic water and electricity provision.

Formalisation of the market place is a desirable process because it will replace the vulnerability of short-lived activity by insuring a permanent and central facility that has the potential to encourage long-term investments in the area (Oswalt, Overmeyer and Misselwitz 2013, 323).

The growth of the market place encourages occupation, ad-hoc use, and intervention in the abandoned spaces that litter the ‘Neutral Zone’. Further use of the ruins has the potential to instigate additional scavenging of rubble and re-usable materials taken from these buildings. The market may encourage large expansion of informal trade, which then has the capacity to occupy the large stretch of land between the market place and the abandoned foundations of the Catholic Cathedral. In a similar way, the growth and gradual permanency of street trade in Belgrade, Serbia has enabled the city to regain a sense of dignity; stemming from the appearance of impoverished women selling items such as fruit or woolen socks, street trade has been fostered and consolidated into kiosks and store fronts that have reactivated ruined parts of the city (Oswalt, Overmeyer and Misselwitz 2013, 47).

Mostar’s city planning council may encourage the informal spirals that the market place has the capacity to enable, because active use of the space facilitates social and cultural infrastructure to grow, whilst also creating new jobs and providing the framework for public life.20 Formalisation and permanency is rooted in not just the construction itself, but in the social significance it projects, as when a building becomes part of daily life and supports livelihoods, its social value becomes considerable, and it can become regarded a permanent place, both physically and psychologically, in the lives of local residents.

20. This is beneficial to the council as it encourages the maintenance of existing public space for which funding is not otherwise available. (Oswalt, Overmeyer and Misselwitz 2013, 323)

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PURCHASE OF ABANDONED LAND AND PROPERTY The implications of activating the city centre increase incentives for investment in the abandoned plots that frame the ‘Neutral Zone’. By utilising temporary uses, the value of property and land can increase as the temporary uses allow the given location to become well known, and therefore attract commercial users and investors through its re-imagined image. It has been assumed, thus far, that the ruins would remain untouched whilst the nodal points and the central market place are developed and strengthened, due to Mostar’s extremely weak economy and the stigma surrounding the ruined buildings. However, the impact of informal, innovative uses on the image of central Mostar can significantly change its perception. If the usage of the market and surrounding interventions were to generate significant activity, then the land values would be likely to increase. The ruins in their current state make it difficult to extract useful building materials; therefore, it has not been possible to exploit this resource so far. Should a developer invest in land near this activity, procurement of existing ruins would typically lead to demolition rather than re-use, therefore making materials available for use in the subsequent stages of this project.

IMPACT OF FORMALISATION The permanency given to a facility that structures everyday life will challenge the current means of development being implemented in BiH. The area has seen rapid construction of shopping malls, but a lack of provision for every day street life, which provides a core income for many people. The market place and recognition of its social value enable the city to develop at a rate that is coupled to economic growth and social integration, rather than to a process of nationalist based constructions, or overly grand gestures of nostalgic reconstruction. Mostar’s everyday street-life has the capacity to establish a shared public culture because ‘it is at this level of everyday social practices that social vitality and cultures of socialisation, talk, negotiation and understandings are produced’ (Amin and Stephen 1997, 422). Rather than undermining the subtly of earlier stages, the formality of the market exploits the new conditions they have created. The involvement of the cooperative group throughout the formalisation of the interventions would also enable community participation and thus ease nationalistic tensions.

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AN INDEPENDENT SHARED STRUCTURE Having established a ribbon of activity by providing a place to work, shop, and meet, this stage builds on, and exploits the active situation presented by the reinvigoration of the city centre and the increased dialogue, and sense of pride, that the previous stages would strengthen. The proposed second building would be an independent structure, located at the edge of the site, between the Abrašević, the Nansen Dialogue Centre and the new market place. This is the first fully freestanding proposal in this sequence of interventions, and is designed to frame a series of public spaces that allow for a dynamic ground condition of varying formality.

This independent structure would play an integral role in strengthening the networks of connection opened up between East and West. The building provides multiple functions to support Abrašević, the Nansen Dialogue Centre, and the wider community consequently becoming a shared place, or informal town hall, which assumes a wider social value than the individual activities it supports. This chapter explains, through drawn analysis, the organisation of the town hall within its urban context and its detail construction, which exploits the reclaimed rubble made available in the previous stage, and utilises local skills.

Designing a new building in the scarred topography of Mostar requires a close examination of the damaged ground condition it relates to, spatially and aesthetically. The use of rubble is carefully considered as in a physically torn context, exposed rubble does little to raise spirits or encourage a sense of pride.

Particular materials are, however, suitable for reuse such as bricks, while, and as paving and ceramic tiles are, be explored as possible cladding materials. The materials extracted for reuse are chosen so as not to act as explicit reminders of conflict. Visibly damaged material is not employed, but the considered reuse of intact elements builds a material relationship to the fragile ruins without mirroring their decay. The concrete is more visibly linked to the image of decay in Mostar as the ruins expose their shattered concrete skeletons to the public realm. A brick or tile does not hold the same significance.

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MILK MARKET SHELTERED

BY ABANDONED TOWER BLOCK

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01 CATALYST CATALYST CATALYST

CATALYST MILK MILK MARKET MARKET SHELTERED SHELTERED MILK MARKET SHELTERED

BY BY BY MILK MARKET SHELTERED BY ABANDONED ABANDONED TOWER TOWER BLOCK BLOCK ABANDONED TOWER BLOCK ABANDONED TOWER BLOCK

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OCCUPY FRAMING03INFORMAL MAR03 KETS OCCUPY

BY LATCHING ONTO

OCCUPY FRAMING INFORMAL MARKETS EXISITNG STRUCTURE FRAMING INFORMAL MARKETS

BY LATCHING ONTO EXISITNG

BY LATCHING ONTO EXISITNG STRUCTURE STRUCTURE

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UTILISE

ACTIVATION OF EAST-WEST CONNECTIONS ALLOWS FINAL ANCHOR POINT TO PROVIDE A SHARED SPACE AND FRAME RE-USE THE SURROUNDING OPEN PROPPING ANDSPACES ENCLOSING EXISITNG 02 02 02 RE-USE RUIN RE-USE

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FORMALISE ENCLOSURE AND SERVICING FORMALISE OF MARKET ENCLOSURE AND SERVICING ABANDONED PLOTS AND OF MARKET RUINS SOLD OFF

ABANDONED PLOTS AND RUINS SOLD OFF

RE-USE PROPPING AND PROPPING AND PROPPING AND ENCLOSING ENCLOSING ENCLOSING EXISITNG RUIN EXISITNG RUIN EXISITNG RUIN

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ić ić bra AK Abvvraićševvić C še OKCO še še KbCraAbra OKCOA

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Concrete Rubble Extracted from the Ruins is Exploited for Thermal Mass and a Structural Base 143

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Town Hall Structure 1 2 3 4 5

Reclaimed Rubble Walls Reclaimed Brick Floor Sawn Timber Off cuts Make Structural Grid Timber Board Flooring Timber Truss Structure

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Material Possibilities 146

Extracting ceramic tiles from the walls of the ruins is an intensive, time-consuming and difficult process. This provides employment opportunities and encourages further economic exploitation of the ruins.

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SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF AN INDEPENDENT STRUCTURE The town hall brings significance to the site through both its social and physical implications. It makes two squares, one to the northern side of the building framing an intimate space between Abrašević and the Nansen Dialogue Centre; and one to the south making use of sunken ground left from the destruction of a building. ‘The public arena – in whatever shape or form – remains a theatre for ‘mingling with strangers’. The effect is the evolution of a shared citizenship across the urban spectrum – class, gender, ethnic and sexual – constructed around the everyday social confidence that comes from individuals and communities making use of the right of access to a public space shared with others’ (Amin and Stephen 1997, 422). The building makes both a place and a background to public space.

The building creates enclosure in a place where openness is linked to destruction. It consists of two distinct layers, the heavy mass of the ground floor and the light construction of the timber propped above it. The interior is intentionally vivid - elevating the status of the tool for reuse, the prop is made into an expressive architecture.

As the proposal goes further to define a quality of space, it is exposed to the risk associated with formal and permanent urban intervention in Mostar.

However, it is necessary to move beyond the stunted reconstruction efforts, and the use and evolution of a simple, pragmatic propping devise presents an opportunity to achieve this.

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Town Hall Ground and Cladding 1:30 1

Skin Construction 10 mm Wood Fibre-Cement Panel Aluminium Bracket 25 mm Timber Purlin 150 mm Sawn Timber Element 60 mm Thermal Insulation 50 mm Timber Baton

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First Floor Construction 50 mm Timber boards 60 mm Insulation 400 mm Timber Grid Constructed From Sawn Timber Off-Cuts Vapour Barrier 25 mm Timber Batons

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Wall Construction Above Ground: 10 mm Reclaimed Ceramic Tile Mortar Below Ground: Porous Boards Vapour Barrier 500 mm Stacked Reclaimed Rubble Construction, with Mortar and Steel Rod and In-situ Concrete Cap 60 mm Insulation Plaster

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Ground Construction Reclaimed Clay Bricks Mortar Bed Fine Sand Fine Gravel 500 mm Reclaimed Rubble Soil

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Interior Ground Floor Construction Reclaimed Clay Bricks Mortar Bed 60 mm Screed Thermal Insulation, Waterproof Damp-Proof Membrane 500 mm Reclaimed Rubble Lean Concrete

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Foundation Pad and Drainage Pipe

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The new building’s footprint is identical to the ruin and whilst timber props support the ruin, the new-build is opposite; a rubble base props up a timber structure. Thus, the two work as a pair but are distinctly different.

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The overhanging upper level is articulated so that it skirts around the solid construction beneath it revealing entrances, and sometimes almost meeting the ground to provide a blank canvas for projection.

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conclusion

Given the peculiarities of the conflict in Mostar, the former front line running through the centre of the city as it does, it is clear that the urban environment critically reinforces Mostar’s divided territory and articulates the intricacies of everyday life. The work conducted here is designed to engage with the spatial constraints that are found in this troubled city and to use the design process to explore the possibilities and implications of acting ‘architecturally’ in a space where building anything is inherently controversial. The proposals are minimal in nature but describe a spectrum of responses that relate to distinct areas of current academic discourse and political debate.

By responding to the physical and social challenges engrained within the torn fabric of Mostar, the incremental approach that I have proposed aims to reactivate the city centre by reinstating, opening up, and building new connections between the divided East and West communities. The design responds to the to the hypothesis that spaces and activities that lend themselves to daily overlaps between Bosniaks and Croats, will contribute to reintegration by encouraging dialogue.

‘Reconciliation is a long-term process requiring a restoration of trust, empathy (recognition of shared suffering), and rehumanisation of the ‘other.’ Rehumanisation, through personal contact and dialogue, helps to dispel fear – a key driver of ethnic division ‘(Rogan 2000 cited by Haider, 2012, p. 14). Designing spaces constitutive of shared, heterogeneous, practices and identities is considered the principal driver in this project. Shared places and social staging ground, enable us to ‘conceptualise and represent the city – to make an ideology of its receptivity to strangers, tolerance of difference, and opportunities to enter a fully socialised life, both civic and commercial’ (Amin & Stephen, 1997, p. 422).

The study is a speculative exploration, limited by an inability test proposals beyond the support of the drawn design and its exploratory implications. However, the work is rooted in a close examination of similar initiatives and situations. The core of the project is based on an understanding that daily overlaps and economic incentives will contribute to enhanced ethno-national dialogue, and therefore encourage an understanding to develop between the two communities. While this is largely speculative, evidence from other cities suggests that this staggered approach is essential in the case of heightened social tension, the incremental moves testing the social and political situations subtly, and growing with them in order not to aggravate conflict. A continued engagement with the local community and stakeholders would make it possible to determine how the social and economic dynamics tackled within this design research would be affected.20

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At this stage, the project is indicative of a larger ambition. However, the design process has made it possible to develop a strategy and potentially sustainable approach for continued development in Mostar. It is envisaged that having established the first stage of activation, that the city will need to make it its own. It is necessarily humble. The design process itself has facilitated this strategy as it supports a staged approach. The iterative process, by which the implications of each design move are assessed in order to define the next stage, is particularly valuable in this case. Clearly each stage speculates about the implications of the former, but each also gives us an opportunity to find overlaps between current areas of discourse and strategy. By proposing built interventions, the design opens up debates surrounding the social, economic, and political implications of this work, and provides a new framework for revealing the relationships between these new questions and situations. Using design as a tool for understanding the capability, restrictions, and concerns surrounding the reactivation of Mostar’s city centre has proved a useful means of testing the instinctive ideas gathered through ethnographic research. Design has enabled an understanding of the spatial implications of segregation and integration so that these considerations may nurture a strengthening of East/ West connections in Mostar. Presenting a theoretical but thorough vision to the wider academic, professional and local community for critique will open up further questions, and reveal other possible design strategies that have the potential to contribute to a sustainable future for Mostar.

The design demonstrates that there are many opportunities for fostering shared space in Mostar, and the inclusion of everyday realities and routines as a fundamental part of design, is integral to contributing to a coexistence that extends beyond the pragmatic mixing of Bosniak and Croat communities imposed by formal, administrative situations.

Additionally, the design demonstrates that informal economies present a valuable opportunity for inter-ethno-national relationships to grow, as they are dependent on mutual trust and dialogue. The challenge this design research presents is how to enhance and exploit Mostar’s existing informal economies as a means of reactivating abandoned physical and social spaces in the core of the city, so that connections between East and West can once again start to flourish.

20. Although this design research is based on conversations and observations that stemmed from living amongst and working with the local community the scope of people involved with this project was very narrow and does not constitute a well-rounded sample of local stakeholders. It does however; represent a design stemming from a unique selection of individual’s memories and daily lives.

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LIST OF INTERVIEWS Senada Demirovic (15th December 2011, 14th April 2013) Mostar City Planning Council, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina Bozena Kaltak (21st September 2012) UNDP Regional Programme Manager for Herzegovina, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina Adisa Dzino (1st August – 15th December, 2012) Architect at Cultural Heritage Without Borders, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina Aida Vezic (September 2012) Cultural Heritage Without Borders, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina Sumeja Tulic (September – December, 2012) Programme Officer at Civil Rights Defenders, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina Safet Begović (5th August – 15th December, 2012) Informal Trader, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina Mela Žuljevic (14th December 2011, 8th August 2012) AbART, OKC Abrašević, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina Sonja Biserko (2nd August 2012) Founder and President of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina In addition, to the interviews listed above, many informal conversations and exchanges with local people have informed this research.

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LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Spanish Square 1995, The Glass Bank and the Destroyed Hit Supermarket Source: Goddard, W. (2012). Enclave.

Dubrovnik, Croatia: Katalogizacija u publikaciji.

P. 46 - 47 Figure 2: Cigarette Packet, health warning written in Croatian, Bosnian and Serbian Source: w-hite-lily. (n.d.). Retrieved July 24, 2012, from tumblr: http://www.tumblr.com/ tagged/drina?language=it_IT Figure 3: ‘Street Arts Festival Mostar’ Painting the Glass Bank Source: https://www.facebook. com/photo.php?fbid=4554458545 41652&set=pb.271933602892879.2207520000.1374692856.&type=3&theater w-hite-lily. (n.d.). Retrieved July 24, 2012, from tumblr: http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/ drina?language=it_IT Figure 4: Glass Bank 2008 Source: mmeila. (2008, December 29). Retrieved July 23, 2013, from Google Earth.